Miss Morality is Gone

Bill Withers performs Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

I wanted to write about Morality and the Law and as I always do before a post I poke around and do a little research, usually enough that will satisfy me. That's all I need since this is not the College Town Debaters Society. I give the whole of society a great deal of credit for knowing what is right and what is wrong, but believe sometimes I am tested to the very limit in this belief.

I want people to think - not just about what movie to go and see, or what should be jotted done on the shopping list today or even if Jersey Shore would be worth it if it were only a five minute show. No, I want people to think about grand ideas, ideas that affect the world, the nation, the state, even the street where you live. I want all of us to think collectively, discuss and debate our ideas and be an active part.

What I don't what is a state imposed Thought Police that will tell us what is right and wrong, that tells us what we think! That to quote a phrase - A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.

“A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose.” ~ Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant gave a lot of thought to morality, I mean his ideas can squeeze all the life out of your brain before you are done. But I didn't want to debate the man, merely look to him for words of wisdom, thoughts perhaps that I could extract to today and to make sense out of what is going on in our world. Growing up I always had different people I could turn to, trust - to provide a moral compass for this mere mortal of a child. The list included parents, teachers, ministers, leaders of our community, the police that protected... Not all these people took their roles seriously because over time each one would stumble and fall before my very eyes. So with that little morsel of background information you can understand why I am not always so keen on looking at what our government does as being the morally correct approach to getting a job done.

Society will rationalize when it is handy to do so. I remember the discussion of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and the need to justify TORTURE as morally correct. Water-boarding was mentioned often and for those of you who have never experienced the sensation of almost drowning, it is like being total shrouded and encased in water, it is hard to convey the feeling of panic that takes over when you sense the loss of precious air to breathe.  I have never been water-boarded but I have experienced near drowning and it's not a pleasant experience. I can't even imagine how it must feel to have this done over and over and over again... 

But I digressed, the point I wanted to make was something I heard on the Sunday Talk News shows where the SEAL training was being talked about. Some one (probably Rumsfeld or Cheney) mentioned how all the SEAL's had to be water-boarded as part of their training.  Was this comment being throw out as a basis for legitimizing water-boarding as a torture technique? 

Maybe we spent too much time watching Jack Bauer and not enough time thinking. Why is it bad when other governments kill, torture and assassinate and when the United States does it it is a good thing? Our CIA has been ordering hits on people that they felt were getting in the way for years, though admittedly until lately it didn't make the nightly news or become a cause celebre. 


Are we a nation founded on law, order and justice? That old adage 'innocent until proven guilty' - unless the government deems your are guilty beyond any reasonable need for a trial. That must be it. Now, don't get me wrong and scream at me that I am defending a horrible man, a terrorist that killed thousands. What I am talking about is the rule of law. If I believe in it I have to let it apply to everyone, not just those I deem worthy of it.


If we allow the rule of law to be set aside in 'special' cases we may wake up one day and find we have become a special case as well. When there is an imposition of special rules for special cases, we as individuals end up the real losers.


I guess the killing of Bin Laden is what Kant would refer to as a 'categorical imperative'.